Eurofighter Typhoon DA1

DA1 (Development Aircraft 1) was the first of the seven Eurofighter development aircraft to reach flying condition. Eight prototypes had originally been planned, but one was cancelled early in 1991 to save money; of the remaining seven, Germany built DA1 and DA5, the United Kingdom DA2 and DA4, Italy DA3 and DA7 and Spain DA6. Wearing the German military serial 98+29, DA1 was built by DASA (Deutsche Aerospace) at Ottobrunn as a single-seater and moved in May 1992 to the Manching plant in Bavaria, from where it was due to take off on 11 May that year. Problems with the flight-control system delayed the event by almost two years, until 27 March 1994, when DASA chief test pilot Peter Weger flew it for the first time with the 'Phase 0' flight-control software. The aircraft was powered by two Turbo-Union RB199 turbofans borrowed from the Panavia Tornado, because the definitive Eurojet EJ200 was not yet ready; the British DA2, which flew ten days later, was in the same situation, while the Italian DA3 became the first to fly on EJ200s on 4 June 1995.

Within the division of tasks among the prototypes, DA1 was responsible for the airframe, the engines and the flight-control system (FCS) software. It completed nine test flights by June 1994, after which the FCS was upgraded to Phase 2 and flying resumed on 18 September 1995. In March 1996 the aircraft was flown for the first time by a Luftwaffe pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Spolgen, allowing the military evaluation to be completed on 24 April 1996. A long lay-up followed for re-engining with series 03Z EJ200s, an avionics upgrade to the STANAG 3910 standard and the fitting of a Martin-Baker Mk.16 ejection seat, work that lasted until November 1998. Flying resumed in the third quarter of 1999 and continued until 11 September 2000; in May 2000 DA1 took part with the Spanish DA6 in environmental-systems trials at Boscombe Down.

After a further FCS update, on 3 July 2001 it began a two-week series of trials on the North Sea ACMI range with Jagdbombergeschwader 38, and in August 2001 it carried out buddy-buddy air-to-air refuelling from a Panavia Tornado. On 14 May 2002 it became the first Eurofighter to land in Austria, during an Austrian armed forces information day at Graz-Thalerhof airport, as the country weighed up a successor to its Saab Drakens. From 8 April 2003 it was detached to Spain to replace DA6, which had been lost in an accident on 21 November 2002, and on 27 August 2003 it became the first Eurofighter to fly with the IRIS-T missile, initially as a dummy round; trials of the direct voice input (DVI) system followed. Its final task, up to October 2004, was gathering data to refine the flight-control laws. DA1 made its last flight on 21 December 2005 and is now displayed at the Flugwerft Schleißheim, the Deutsches Museum's aviation branch at Oberschleißheim near Munich, where it stands next to the Rockwell-MBB X-31 demonstrator. Of the other development aircraft, its British counterpart DA2 is likewise preserved, at the RAF Museum in Hendon, London.